Election Day: Don’t be a no-show at the polls

Reason you should vote - Your neighbor probably won’t

Photo credit: Joeff Davis/CL file

By
Sean Keenan

Wednesday November 8, 2017 03:57 pm EST

Reason you should vote #598: Your neighbor probably won’t

What’s that? Your’re not a fan of the boarded-up eyesores you drive passed in southwest Atlanta? You can’t wrap your head around the municipal government’s romance with mammoth stadiums or tony mixed-use developments? Remember when affordable housing was affordable? Well, why the heck aren’t you queued up at your neighborhood polling place right now?

This election season, most registered Atlanta voters will stay home, according to a report from The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Less than 10 percent of the 250,000 people registered to cast a ballot in the mayoral race actually showed up to vote early. Now, an analyst says, a “dismal” turnout could mean the oft-cited preliminary polls won’t be predictive of tonight’s results at all.

If you live in Atlanta proper, you have until 8 p.m. to etch some check marks beside the names of your favorite candidates. But if you don’t, you’ll be doomed to entertain the antics of whichever politicos your neighbors pick.